This essay describes and compares Parliament and the Supreme Court and examines the relationship between them. Parliament may still be a great institution, but its members are no longer great men. How long can a great institution remain great in the hands of small men? The SC has held its place in the public esteem rather better than the Lok Sabha, despite the occasional allegation of financial impropriety. Parliament, the...
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Singur Is Still The Waste Land- by Ashish K Mishra, Archisman Dinda
On the night of June 21, around 10 p.m., the police of West Bengal’s Hooghly district descended on Tata Motors’ half-built Singur plant and threw out the private guards there. In about half an hour, the new government in West Bengal, under the leadership of Mamata Banerjee, took over the 997 acres that had proved to be the Waterloo of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and its allies. Earlier,...
More »Poles apart by V Venkatesan
The Joint Lokpal Bill Drafting Committee concludes its meetings without any agreement on major issues. ON June 21, as the five government representatives and the five civil society members of the Joint Lokpal Bill Drafting Committee ended their deliberations after exchanging their versions of the draft Lokpal Bill, the battle lines were clearly drawn. The government was in no mood to agree with the civil society members led by Anna...
More »Neoliberal Act by Anil Sadgopal
The Right to Education Act, which lacks a transformational vision, is geared to preparing foot soldiers for the global market. THE most encouraging and delightful news regarding school education in India since the pro-market reforms began in 1991 came from Erode district in Tamil Nadu recently. To be sure, it is neither about the World Bank-sponsored District Primary Education Programme (DPEP) of the 1990s nor about the internationally funded and...
More »Equivalent quantum of land for unwilling owners
-The Hindu The West Bengal government on Monday tabled the Singur Land Rehabilitation and Development Rules Act, 2011, which gives the government the option of giving unwilling land owners at the disputed plot at Singur a quantum of land equivalent to what they had lost. The Rules, which were laid in the Legislative Assembly by State Industry Minister Partha Chatterjee, defines an unwilling owner as someone who owns a plot of...
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